Strikers were the theme yesterday. Not least the praise heaped upon Fernando Torres for his last minute winner at Villa Park on Tuesday. Inevitably much of the coverage adopted a “where would Liverpool be without him” approach. Fair enough, but hats off for Rafa and his team for having the taste to sign him, it’s not luck he’s with us is it?

Torres also drew praise for becoming the fastest player in the club’s history to reach fifty top flight goals. The statisticians had a field day unearthing the achievements of Roger Hunt, Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen (unlike Stalin we don’t wipe him from our history books, even though he’s crossed to “the dark side”!) by way of comparison. One suspects these had been ready for some time as Torres clocked in at six matches quicker than “Sir Roger’s” record. It was only a matter of time?

Records are records for those who.. er get off on records. It was great that Torres achieved this however, the overriding feeling for me was the relief that Tuesday’s game bought. It was the equivalent of someone getting a sandblaster and removing all the *hit and dirt that’s accumulated over the last few months. Relief? Yes. Light at the end of the tunnel? Perhaps not. The manner of the victory, a last gasp winner, perhaps so. Whatever the facts it felt good, albeit for only one game, even though it looks like Glen Johnson will now be out for a while. Arsenal fans who have just enjoyed a 4-1 away win will say “big deal” but you go through what we’ve been through recently. Only the most miserable of old gets would deny us some joy even though it might be considered a tad OTT not to mention premature?

So to transfer rumours and one took a few steps to becoming more than that yesterday. The case of ex Manc Mr Ruud van Nistelrooy. One wonders if this would be a good deal from our point of view. If reports are true then I don’t think we have too much to lose. The long faced one has suggested that he would be more than happy to move to L4 inspite of inquires from Arsenal, presumably because he is familiar with North West having been at the Mancs? Real Madrid, with Champions League games to play, want to keep him but, like Ryan Babel, Van Nistelrooy wants regular football as he has half an eye on the World Cup. He realises his chances are limited at Real as they have bought in God knows how many players in or around his position whilst he’s been injured.

As mentioned in a previous blog, Van Nistelrooy is used to the Premiership and has good goals to game ratio. Age is an issue, he is 33, but its’ been suggested that we will try to get Real to continue paying his wages which would keep in with Rafa having to rely on cheap, short term “patch ups” whilst the owners continue to fiddle and basically let things slide. The only fly in the ointment? It’s thought that Rafa prefers Emile Heskey! Someone have a word!

Meanwhile it also been suggested that spade could hit sod on the new stadium in the spring. A Liverpool City Council bloke has said the Star Spangled Duo are close to getting the finances. Said one of their suits…

“We’ve been pressing Liverpool Football Club to ensure that they deliver the stadium and if they’re not going to deliver it, to come clean with the council so we can look at other options. Liverpool Football Club have come back to us and said they’re very close now to securing the finances and they want to move on as quickly as possible, not only for the World Cup bid but also for Liverpool Football Club, who see a new stadium as being the heart of the business plan.”

Yep, OK, let’s see. Interesting about the timing of the announcement which brings me neatly to this….. Happy New Year.